5 Most Common Reasons People Are Staying Out Of The Workforce In Singapore

In a lot of countries worldwide, job numbers are constantly monitored for signs of weakness in an economy. This is a consistent feature of economies, not only in the US but worldwide.

Singapore is fortunate enough to not have a high unemployment rate. Currently, the unemployment rate for Singaporean residents is 2.6% and there are 139 job vacancies per 100 unemployed people, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

However, in any country, there are varied reasons as to why people stay out of the workforce. Singapore is no different.

In early 2024, the MOM released a Persons Outside the Labour Force 2023 survey. Here are the 5 most common reasons that are cited by Singaporeans for why they stay out of the workforce.

Individuals might be surprised to know that the MOM actually surveyed residents aged 15 years and over for its report. Out of the total 1.12 million Singaporeans who were outside of the labour force in 2023, 284,600 cited “education and training-related” as their main reason for doing so.

This could include pursuing a higher education or additional qualifications. It could also mean pursuing a career in vocational professions by taking on a course at a vocational training institute.

Whatever the reason, it’s positive that those out of the workforce are undertaking courses to improve their chances of employment upon completion. Of course, it’s not surprising that 262,500 people citing this reason were aged 15 to 24.

Even more encouraging is that over 60% of those in this bucket (172,000) had a “below Secondary” or “Secondary” education as their highest qualification. That signifies that those without a higher education are still intent on improving their skills sets and “upskilling” to better their chances of employment in future.

#2 Retirement

While retirement right now might be a pipe dream for many of us, many Singaporeans cite it as the main reason to stay out of the workforce. More specifically, 281,900 people cite “retirement” as the key reason for not working.

Digging deeper into the data, there are more males citing retirement (150,700) versus females citing it (131,300) when it comes to being outside the labour force.

This is surprising as Singapore actually has only 948 males per 1,000 females – meaning there are slightly more women in the overall population but there are less women citing retirement as a reason to stay out of the workforce. Perhaps, one reason for this is due to other reasons for women to stay out of the workforce, including prioritising domestic work.

#3 Housework

Third on the list of most common reasons to stay out of the workforce was “housework”. That most likely relates to raising kids and the societal pressure that results from helping children perform well on their PSLE exams.

It’s not a shock to learn that out of a total of 176,700 Singaporeans who fell into this “housework” bucket, 174,700 were women. That means only 2,000 men cited that as the main reason for not working – suggesting that the burden (when it comes to the running of family households) still very much falls on women.

It might be surprising to learn that 96,500 women in this segment were aged 60 & Over, significantly more than the 78,200 of the 59 & Under age group. That suggests that many older women are perhaps also helping their families in taking care of their grandchildren.

#4 Poor Health/Too Old

With a rapidly-ageing population, it’s also not surprising that “poor health/too old” is the fourth most commonly-cited reason for staying out of the workforce. In 2023, a total of 170,000 Singaporeans cited this as the main reason for not being employed.

More women (111,000) had this as their main reason versus men (59,000). When it came to the 60 & Over age bracket, the rate of women who cited this (94,500) was basically double that of men (47,200) who cited it.

In terms of the highest education qualification achieved, those with a “below secondary” or “secondary” education made up 80% of the total (136,100) in this segment.

#5 Taking A Break

Finally, in fifth place are individuals who wanted to “take a break” from work. That could be down to anything from wanting to spend more time with family or to improve mental health (if the job was particularly stressful).

This was cited by 55,400 as the main reason for staying out of the workforce. Tellingly, it was those who had a Diploma & Professional Qualification and Degree as their highest education qualification that made up the majority (57%) of those citing this.

In terms of the gender breakdown, it was broadly more women (29,600) than men (25,800) that cited it but it wasn’t a significant gulf.

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